Miata "hood" alignment

I see a lot of Miata's with hood problems - or at least that's how they look. You know the ones, where the hood sticks up higher than the pop up headlights. I always wondered how the hood got that far out of alignment, but that's not what's rong at all.
After doing a lot of under hood work I found my car exhibited the same hood issue. But I wuickly found out that it wasn't the hood at all, just the headlight covers...

 There isn't any bracing in the back of the Miata headlight covers. Any pressure will cause them to bend down creating what looks like a hood alignment problem. Luckily, the fix is really simple...

Prop open the hood, grab a rag and "love up" the underside of the headlight covers. Apply a little upward pressure as you rub across the width of the cover. Don't pull hard, just  gently pressure is all it needs.

 In no time your headlight covers will be back where they belong and your hood will fit like new.

$8 Fix for a faded Miata bumper

If you have an early Miata with original paint, chances are the front bumper has faded. You have probably read about different polishes or treatments that should work, but none worked on my car. Here's how the nose used to look - tired and faded...

Then I got the idea that what was really wrong was that the clear coat was gone. I tried a little cear touch up paint to test the ides, and it worked! I went to the local auto parts store and bought a can of Duplicolor clear for $8. I masked off the metal work, so that only the rubber bumper was exposed and laid down 3 coats of clear before the can gave out.
Here is the result:

 

After a couple of days, I rubbed it in with some polishing compound to bring out the shine and there you have it. No need for an expensive paint job and no more embarrassing faded nose - and for only $8!